


Facing Fear

by KyoukaiKanata



Series: Werewolf AU [3]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Facing Phobias, Gen, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Pack Feels, fear of needles, support network
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28818447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KyoukaiKanata/pseuds/KyoukaiKanata
Summary: Lando knows he is being stupid, irrational even. He doesn’t want to be. He doesn’t mean to be, but he knows he is.It’s just a standard procedure. People had them every day. It shouldn’t be anything to worry about. It’s just an injection.Nothing more.Nothing less.Or even wolves get scared sometimes. But they are pack, and they will never leave one member to face anything alone. Even a phobia of needles.
Relationships: Kimi Räikkönen/Sebastian Vettel, Lando Norris/Max Verstappen
Series: Werewolf AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957726
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	Facing Fear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CustardCreamies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CustardCreamies/gifts).



> For **custardcreamies** I am still so god damn proud of you for facing your fear the other day. This fic is meant in full respect of your strength and courage and I really hope you like it 💙💙
> 
> **Please note all, there is a mention of needles and injections throughout this fic, although none happen, it is just a discussion.**

Lando knows he is being stupid, irrational even. He doesn’t want to be. He doesn’t mean to be, but he knows he is.

It’s just a standard procedure. People had them every day. It shouldn’t be anything to worry about. It’s just an injection.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

It is something he shouldn’t be fearful of. It’s just a normal part of life after all. They have all had to have them as part of protecting the entire paddock. Protecting the pack. Protecting the ones that matter to them most.

But that doesn’t mean he likes it. It doesn’t mean he wants it. He just knows it’s needed. He knows that for all there is a choice to have it, it is not really one morally he can miss out on. He has too many people he wants to protect after all.

Family and friends who have been there through everything. The highs and the lows of both personal and professional interactions as he had worked his way up through years of racing.

His pack that have come to mean the world to him. 

Inequitably, it all comes to a head far sooner than he would like. Before he's really had time to process it himself and, at first it isn't even Max that notices, it’s Seb. Of course, it's Seb, it was always going to be. Of all the people in the pack, he had always been the most motherly (as much as he would kill him if he heard him say it) and the one that no matter what, if he found you were in trouble or you were worrying about something he would help you.

That's just who he was.

That's who said had always been and who he always would be.

It's what made him, him.

And as the day comes and gets closer and closer, Lando can't help but worry more and more. He can feel himself getting stressed out over it. He can feel the anxiety burning through him almost like a tidal wave of emotion. And he hates it. More than anything he hates it.

He's a driver.

He's a _werewolf._

He's part of one of the strongest packs even the born were’s have ever known. He has the Max Verstappen, his fire fuelled omega, as his mate.

But he can't cope with a simple injection.

It's stupid and he wants to hate himself for it but secretly he knows it's not really his fault. It's no one’s fault. He was just born this way. Needles were his phobia the same way Pierre had a phobia of water rapid rides, after a prank with his brothers that went wrong. It was just one of those things. One of their individual quirks, as Tiffany sometimes said.

It is in the quiet of one night, three days before _the day,_ as the rest of the pack has settled down to sleep, each with their own partners in their separate rooms for a change, that Seb finds him awake. He had slipped out the room earlier whilst Max was still snoring away, his mouth wide open as he laid on his back and, as per normal, the entire duvet wrapped around him.

“Lando?”

Seb’s voice out of the darkness startled him at first and he jolted from his thoughts to look behind him. The older wolf, holding a mug of what looked like herbal tea in his hand, walked over to him and sat down beside him on the patio.

“You alright,” he said quietly.

“Yes,” Lando whispered, dropping his heads down into his chest and shoving his sleeves into his famous sweater paws. It was almost like he was trying to sink into his own skin and Seb could sense how close his wolf was to the surface. The wolf wanted to run and run far. Run from the fear consuming him. Run from of everything he was frightened of most.

For a moment Seb said nothing, just watched than Lando’s reactions and contemplated. He was surprised Max hadn't picked up on the pure scent of fear emitting from his mate, but he had a feeling that Lando had hid it well. He was very good at doing that when needed.

For all he could be boisterous when excited and a bit of a loudmouth in real life, when his wolf side took over, he was much more in tune. He could conceal himself at a moment’s notice and it made him one of the best hunters in the pack. He had the ability especially with his colouring to meld into the shadows and the undergrowth of the night. Too often on the rare occasions the pack did choose to do a hunt, they had their most success with Lando at the helm. 

Even Kimi had begun to joke it was due to the number of video games he had been playing, and that he must have learned many ways of concealment through the Last of Us, Tomb Raider and Call Of Duty. But you can't always hide forever, Seb knows this too well, as much as Lando may want to think it, the scent pouring off him and his body manner is far too great to ignore.

“Lando,” Seb said gently, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong just leave it!” Lando snarled uncharacteristically, standing up and walking out of the patio into the open air.

“If nothing was wrong you wouldn't say it like that,” Seb said, standing up and following him out into the open. Standing beside him, he threw an arm over his shoulder and squeezed him gently into his side.

“Talk to me what's really the matter? Whatever you're scared of, you're not going to be facing this alone, you have all of us, you have Max, and that isn't going to change no matter what this is.”

“But that's just it!” Lando snapped back, pulling out of Seb’s arm, and creating some space between them, “It's nothing terrible it's just me being pathetic.”

“I'm pretty sure it isn't,” Seb answered, “You're not pathetic Lando, and you never will be no matter what it is.”

“Talk to me.”

“It doesn't- it doesn't matter.”

“What matters to you matters to all of us,” Seb answered, “Even if it doesn’t seem like it, you’re pack. We are family and your wellbeing will always come first.”

Approaching him again this time a smaller wolf let him cuddle him to him, Lando's nose buried into the side of his neck as he took in the comfort from his friend.

“It's just me being stupid,” Lando murmured at last.

“I'm pretty sure it isn't.”

“We’re all pretty sure it isn't,” the gruff voice from behind made them both jump as Kimi quietly came towards them out of the darkness of the rest of the house, and leant against the railings on the patio.

Seb turned and with his arm still over his shoulder, guided Lando back towards it, sitting down on the steps again, Kimi sliding down next to them on the patio, squeezing Seb’s knee with one hand, as he reached across and muffled Lando’s hair with the other.

Lando leant into the comfort.

“Talk to us, he said, “Seb is right, we are pack and there is no judgement here.”

“There will be when I tell you what it is. It’s so-so stupid!” Tears of frustration welled up in Lando’s eyes.

“Lando?” Max appeared in the doorway, hair all over the place, eyes squinting slightly as they adjusted to the light, “What’s going on?” he asked moving towards them down the steps. Crouching in front of his mate and pulling Lando into a hug.

“Talk to us, Lando what’s the matter? Why do you smell so frightened?” Max asked.

“You promise you won't laugh?”

“Of course not, just tell us, is it something we've done? Have we hurt you?”

“No one’s done anything, it's not that I –" Lando trialled off, unable to finish the sentence.

“Hey, I love you okay,” Max said firmly, stroking the side of his cheek, “Whatever it is if you need me to fight someone or something just say.”

Lando smiled despite everything at the face loyalty of his mate, leaning forward and kissing Max lightly.

“You'll laugh when I tell you,” he said as he pulled away.

“Somehow I doubt it if it's upsetting you this much,” Seb said next to them.

“We are pack,” Kimi murmured next to Seb, “We will face whatever it is as pack.”

“I don't quite know how you gonna face a fear of something as a pack Kimi,” Lando answered.

“Fear of something? Max asked cupping Lando’s jaw and pulling his face up to his own. His eyes soft as he registered the sheer level of anxiety coming from his mate. Leaning in, he nuzzled the side of his neck, placing a kiss to the skin as he drew back, resting their foreheads together.

“Fear of what baby?”

“Needles,” Lando admitted. It still felt weird saying it, but the strength he could see in Max's eyes helped.

“Oh, you're frightened of the injection we all have to have next week, is that right?” Seb asked resting a hand on his knee in support as Kimi’s hand moved to Lando’s shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.

“Terrified,” Lando whispered, “I know it sounds silly, stupid even, especially since we can change and go through much more pain than that when becoming a werewolf. But I've always hated them ever since I was young, and like, I know I have to have one. I get that 100% but I-”

“It doesn't make it any easier,” Max interrupted, pulling his mate into a tight hug.

“That's understandable,” Seb answered, “But-”

“But that doesn't make you weak,” Kimi murmured.

Max pulled away from Lando as Kimi came down beside them and fixed his all-knowing blue orbs onto that of his beta. “Fear is not a weakness Lando, knowing your fears can be your greatest strength. Even if everyone else is okay with something if you're not that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. That doesn't mean there's something wrong with you.”

“Definitely not,” Seb added, “And you are not being pathetic or stupid. You’re just being you, fears, and all. No matter what, we are pack, and we accept you. On the day we will just stay with you whilst it happens.”

“I think only one person at a time can come in,” Lando sniffed.

“Then you know it’s going to be me,” Max shrugged, kissing Lando’s cheek, “Don’t worry, I’m sure I can find something to distract you with.”

“I’m sure we all will,” Seb nodded smiling as he and Kimi cuddled their two packmates between them.

“And Lando,” Kimi added.

“Yeah?”

“No matter what happens on the day, you are facing your fear and we are all proud of you."

Lando smiled shakily at the comment. 

“Really?”

“Definitely.”

Lando sighed as his fear began to ease slightly as his mate and the Alpha pair curled around him on the patio steps and began to debate just what they could use to distract him with. He couldn’t but snort with laughter into the side of Max’s neck at his idea of pulling some stupid prank on Pierre and Charles. It sounded like a total disaster waiting to happen. I mean cutting their hair, _seriously_. Max was an idiot sometimes.

But he was his idiot.

And although he was still scared.

 _So, so scared._

_Petrified even._

Maybe he can get through this.

Maybe with the support of the whole pack family he loves he can do this. With the strength of the Alpha pair, and with the love of his mate, perhaps he can get through anything.

Even this injection.

Even injections to come.

Perhaps, just perhaps, with their support, he can finally fight his fears.

He can face his demon.

Come what may.

**Author's Note:**

> As always kudos and comments are greatly appreciated 💙💙
> 
> Feel free to come and talk to me on Tumblr at kyoukai-kanata (http://kyoukai-kanata.tumblr.com)


End file.
